design could be tweaked until it met
the desired weight without the
repeated guess and check operations
that were required for the first build.
This meant that the build went
smoothly and quickly, with the
mechanical assembly of the chassis
taking about an afternoon of work,
including bending the titanium to the
desired angles.

After another afternoon’s work,
the internal components were all
mounted, and Reptar was ready for
testing. Early tests proved that the
new version of Reptar retained the
agility of its predecessor while
addressing many of the design issues
that arose over the first two events.

During this testing, the end points
of the servo travel were adjusted to
maximize flipper travel, and the tips of
the flipper plate were tweaked to
allow it to reliably self-right.

Reptar didn't manage to match its
prior performance at its first event.
However, the issues that prevented it
from winning another event were
more luck related than design related,
and the changes to the design worked
quite well in an actual combat
environment. It faced off with a nasty
vertical spinner and came out
effectively undamaged.

Overall, the rebuild was a success.
The first event didn't show it, but the
new version of Reptar is much more
capable of holding its own in a
combat environment without
sacrificing any of the characteristics
that allowed it to win its first event.
SV